Bush Readies Veto Pen As Senate Passes Children's Health Bill

The stage is set for one of the most significant domestic policy showdowns of the Bush presidency.

The Senate on Thursday night cleared a massive children's health insurance bill by a veto-proof margin,
67-29, but House approval earlier this week of the same bill was not enough for a veto override, leaving President Bush with the upper hand for now.

Eighteen Republicans in the Senate, some of whom have been Bush allies for years, voted for the $35 billion increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Senate GOP defectors joined 45 House Republicans who voted for the bill.

For Democrats and the growing group of Republicans backing the bill, the expansion of SCHIP is an important moment in American health care policy because it would cover four million more uninsured children, on top of the 6.6 million already receiving benefits. The program was actually an innovation of the Republican Congress in 1997, but Democrats have sought to expand SCHIP to cover even more uninsured children whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

Despite the bipartisan support, conservatives still have enough votes to prevail in sustaining the veto. President Bush and GOP congressional leaders see the expansion to more middle income families as a step toward government run health insurance for everyone.

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The Phil Spector Trial

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Phil Spector avoided a lengthy jail sentence … for now. By the final score of 10-2, guilty votes almost convicted Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson, but thankfully for Phil, a unanimous decision could not be reached, so we’re back to square one. Three of the twelve jurors spoke to the media following the mistrial, including the jury foreman, who only made a brief statement to explain what went down during the twelve-day deliberations. All three men said they think Spector is guilty, and noted the two non-guilty votes stemmed from jurors who felt there wasn’t enough reasonable doubt to prove that Lana Clarkson didn’t commit suicide that night in Spector’s mansion. An in-depth psychological report on Clarkson would have helped sway the two renegade jury members, said their fellow juror.

The same juror lambasted Team Spector for putting on a “fake” defense that created scientific theories, paid for high-priced witnesses, and even employed the forensic scientist husband of one of its lawyers. He also criticized the defense for character-assassinating Lana Clarkson. In fact, the juror was pretty unable to mask his disappointment that two of his peers allowed Spector to slip away. As for the prosecution, strip away all female witnesses that claimed Spector pointed a gun at them and the missing evidence, and it’s still evident that Spector was the murderer, the juror remarked. Both jurors, however, said that if the charge was manslaughter, and not second degree murder, that Spector might be wearing an orange jumpsuit in San Quentin by now. Manslaughter is the key word as the prosecution seeks to rebound from this mistrial.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Judge Fidler will meet with the prosecution and defense sometime next week to discuss how the State of California will proceed. District Attorney spokeswoman Sandy Gibbons made it abundantly clear that Spector will face a retrial “immediately.” For the time being, both sides will likely cue up their TiVos, study the hours and hours of Court TV trial footage, and figure out what they need to do to win. So while Spector might have been donning his party wig last night as he celebrated in his faux-mansion, he better make sure all his flamboyant suits are pressed and cleaned, as the curtain will rise on Act Two of this trial in the near future.

Via : rollingstone.com